Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Woohoo! U.S. Jails More Children For Life Than Any Other Country.

Okay, now I believe in harsh penalties for juvenile offenders for things like murder and rape, just as I do for adults, but I'm not exactly sure what I think about life without parole for children. Scientifically speaking, our brains supposedly do not fully form until we are in our early twenties. I know I was a real dipshit when I was a teenager, even if I thought that I did know evrything. What really kills me about this article, though, is that they quote the statistic where black kids are twenty times more likely to receive life without parole, and they give us no other pertinent information. Like, I don't know, it might be handy to know how many crimes with that punishment level are commited by black children as opposed to white children. Just curious. Of course, I'm obviously a racist who hates Mother Gaea for asking.

2 comments:

Megan said...

I'm not sure, but I think murder is the only offense in which minors get LWOP...regardless of your skin color. Unfortunately, this article tells me one of two things. Either black children in America are more likely to commit murder or California is more likely to give LWOP to black children who have committed murder as opposed to white kids. What is the right answer?

Maximum Colossus said...

Kind of what I was saying. Without all the information, the article leads you to believe that black kids just get convicted more often. No way of telling from this "reporting" whether that is true or not.